Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to restrict public sector windfalls to top performers will make it difficult to recruit and retain talent in the sector, says PPMA’s Mike Cooke.

Cameron has called for windfalls across the public sector to be restricted to employees who have performed “exceptionally well”, with only the top 25% eligible for payments, while a separate commission will limit pay for the heads of state bodies to no more than 20 times that of low paid staff.

Cooke, lead officer on pay and reward at the PPMA and director of organisation development at the London Borough of Camden, told Recruiter: “It is making the sector extremely nervous, which in turn will make it difficult to recruit and retain staff.

“The aim of performance-related pay should be to move most people’s performance forward. You have to be able to deal with mid-range performers. Just to deal with the top 25% does not motivate the majority of people. I would go for smaller incentives for more people rather than large incentives for fewer people.”